Importance of Interpersonal Communication-Free-Samples for Students

Question: You are to Identify and Explain the two issues from your diagnosis and reflection. You are to define the concepts. Answer: Introduction: Interpersonal communication skills are important attributes that each and every individual should incorporate effectively during the times of verbal communication not only in professional life but also in personal life. People who have developed proper interpersonal communication skills are often found to be optimistic, calm, charismatic as well as confident and hence are perceived well by others. Effective listening, proper feedback giving skills, feedback receiving skills, maintaining clarity and concision while communicating, empathy, friendliness, open mindedness and many other often tend to strengthen communication with others. These result in effective relationship building which in turn results in successful output for the intended goal. Johari window: The Johari window specifically consists of four important plots and helps the examinee taking the tests to indentify the transparency of her characters that are known to him as well as to others or are not known to him or by others. Basically the window creates a clear scope of improvement of the understanding of the individuals. Two basic key points of the window is that an individual can build trust with others by the disclosing of the information about him and with the help of the feedback from the others, he can learn about himself and come to different terms with his different personal issues. From the test, that had been conducted online, it was seen that there was a complete lack of transparency between me and my team members in the workplace as the plot that signifies the characters which are known to me as well as others are completely empty suggesting that I have a poor communication level making me not open to others about my different attributes. The next spot called the blind spot is also empty suggesting it to be a positive aspect because there are no attributes of me that are not known to me but known to others. Hence it shows that I have effectively reflected upon all my characters making it completely known by me. However the third plot called the Faade is the real eye opener for me as it helped me to understand what others did not know about me. It helped me to understand why others are nor properly able to understand the characteristics and hence often take me in wrong sense. I am introvert as well as self conscious and tensed. These are not known by my fellow mates and hence they often take me to be rude and rough in my behaviors. The last plot called the unknown part helped me understand my attributes that I never knew I possessed and was also not known by my fellow mates as well. Communication styles questionnaire: This tool usually helps an individual to understand his own communication style. It actually helps the individual to be aware of the different habits and skills that are adapted by him over the years helping him to reflect upon himself. This in turn provides a score showing how effective are the communication skills and whether it should be followed in the future as well. After conducting the communication style questionnaire survey, I realized that I fall into the groups of the pragmatist who are keen in trying new ideas in order to check whether they help in achieving goals more effectively. However the negative aspect is that members of the groups are impatient with ruminating as well as in open minded questions. However they are down to earth and conducts proper problem solving skills. From this, I realized that I am impatient and not open minded in my communication. Assertive questionnaires: This tool usually helps student to engage themselves in an effective interpersonal behaviors which help by contributing to their academic success as well as in different social development both form a personal as well as a professional viewpoint. These questionnaire consists of about 60 questions with the answer options like rather no and rather yes. This was followed by adding the answers to the columns that helped in determining and classifying my actions in four groups namely Passive attitude (flight), Aggressive attitude (attack), Manipulation and Harmonious assertiveness. I observed that I mainly found myself inclined towards flight as I noticed the graph to be inclined more towards the flight attribute. This made me realize that I usually avoided the negative aspects that were present in me rather than devising new techniques to overcome the negative aspects and develop positive skills. I realized that I lacked proper listening skill and also feedback giving and achieving skill s which acted as a barrier in effective communication but I did not take any effective steps. Rather I tried to avoid the topic and thought that it will develop with time. This was indeed a flight attitude. IABC Communication Skills Assessment Tool: The next communication tool that people use is called the IABC Communication Skills Assessment Tool by Rich Young. This tool helps to provide a marking of 1 to 5 in each parameter under the category of current. A target as well as a priority is set by the leaders which are needed to attain by the team members. I faired more or less equally in every of the domains except I the client relationship domain. I observed that I had poor marks against the target and priority set by the leader. The main issue I found is that I failed to seek inputs from clients which are indeed needed to develop our performance and also failed in developing proper personal as well as working relationship with clients from all levels. This was also because of my ineffective listening and feedback receiving and giving skills to fellow teammates or clients. Communication skill assessment Quiz: It is an online quiz that has been developed over a research of 25 years and is participated by different individuals to assess their communication skills. After taking the test, I have noticed that it has been indicating poor performance in listening attributes as well as my feedback giving as well as receiving skill. It had 25 questions with four options that needed to be answered Two issues identified: I have realized that I mainly have problems in two areas these are my impatient listening skills because I tend to be overconfident in my approach and do not provide scope for the opposite person to clarify herself. The second is the improper feedback giving and receiving skills. This is mainly due to my insecurity complex where I believe that others may misguide me for their own benefits and this makes me apprehensive of receiving feedbacks. I also do not provide feedbacks for people may think me to be judgmental and may develop a feeling that I am interfering in their work. Hence, both of them are affecting my career and making me lag behind others. Experience 1: A collaborative work was provided to us by our team leader that was divided among fifteen teammates and was required to be done by forming groups of three individuals. My team also had three individual including mean we effectively divided the task among ourselves. However, one of the team members approached me and was explaining the alterations in the plan she and the other member had conducted to make the program more fruitful. However due to my impatient listening skills, I cut her half way and told her that I have already understood the new plan. However interrupting she made her disappointed and she wanted to clarify gain. However my impatient listening made me cut her again and informed her that she did not need to clarify. However this listening habit put me and my team in great danger for I had performed the part of the task which was already done by other members resulting in complete confusion in role clarification and overlapping of similar parts and totally missed an impo rtant part of the task. We failed the assignment due to my impatient listening skills. Had I listened to her entirely, I would not have failed in the task. Experience 2: I was given the duty to be the leader of a team with five members. We were assigned the task of conducting a social analysis to find out the reason behind the growing incidence of driving and drinking cases. I declared to conduct a personal interview of affected individuals as well as the family members of victims of such accidents. When my team members wanted to provide feedback on my decision I clearly cut them out stating it to be the best way to conduct the analysis. One of them tried to provide a feedback stating that it would be a time taking procedure and therefore advised me to conduct online survey. However I did not allow her to provide full feedback and cut her way by being overconfident. However, I was criticized by my mentor as it was really a lengthy and costly procedure and described that I should have taken suggestions from my colleagues. Hence, I showed that I had improper feedback receiving as well as giving skills. Literature review: Eminent researchers like King et al.. (2016) have stated that effective communication results in positive influence on decision making by the presentation of a particular string point of view which in turn help in developing mutual understanding. They have also stated that proper communication delivers efficient decisions and also solutions by the provision of accurate, timely and relevant information. Moreover it also helps by enabling mutually beneficial solutions and effective in building healthy relationships by encouragements of trust and understanding. Disanza and Legge (2016) has stated that effective listening skills are one of the important steps to establish effective communication which will help in delivering the correct message in the right ways. This usually allows in the understanding of the other party and listening to their response to understand their point of view. Any cut or breach in the smooth flow of the mentioned technique can be determined as ineffective listening. He has also stated that good listening is very important for building strong relationships and in order to be a good listener, one has to fully understand as well as constructively respond to what the opposite person is communicating. A proper way to conduct effective listening is to develop a number of core listening skills as mentioned by author Trenholm, 2016. The other party should always be given full attention by directly looking at them and should not engage in any activities while listening to the opposite person. Studying the body language, wh ile exhibiting proper listening is an extremely important attribute. Every individual should develop this attribute to succeed in professional fields. While the opposite person speaks, the listener should show that they are genuinely listening to them by nodding as well as repeating back what they have said but with their own words. Johansson, Miller and Hamrin (2014) have stated that the listener should not try to judge the speaker but in turn try to understand from the point of view of the speaker without application of his own preconceptions about the speaker. Moreover interruption should never be done by the listener while the speaker is describing his views. The listener should develop the ability to let the speaker put over their response completely before giving the listener of the option to react. Giving them the option to express the complete point of view is an important characteristic that every individual should inculcate in their behaviors to practice effective communic ation. Bedwell, Fiore and Salas (2014) has stated that often being timely in reaction to the opposite speaker is significant in both personal and professional communication as it avoids the chance of any future misconceptions and also nullifies the chance of unsuccessful endeavors. Proper knowledge about the feedback mechanisms that includes both receiving and providing feedback skills is extremely important in order to conduct a smooth working environment with proper bonding among the workers and also maintenance of transparency in the environment. Jackson (2015) states that feedback is the information that acts as reaction to a particular product or about the performance of a task. It is also given as suggestion to make the task better or to improve it. However he has strictly stated that feedback should always be restricted about describing behaviour and should never be subjected to personality. One should not consider feedback as a comment about what type of person an individual or about their value. Rather they should be suggestions for improvement of a particular behaviour that might bring better success to the organization rather than the present one. Moreover feedback sharing should be specific as possible to bring the main focus into the discussion. It should also be timely so that the best effects can be brought out rather than making the situation worse for dragging it long. Researchers like Royle and Liang in 2014 have stated that feedback often helps in development of the skills and knowledge about different working individuals by making him either excited to keep on performing successfully. An effective feedback may also help the person to develop ideas about where he went wring so that he does not repeat the same mistake in future lives. Often feedback may act as motivational support making an individual to dedicate more of himself into his work so that he may never get burnt out. Often receiving feedback helps the individual where others think about his work and thereby judge the working style which he himself follows. It often helps a person to gather a better creative idea which a person might be missing from his own work. Hence often feedback receiving and providing the same is very important. Researchers like Sanghi in the year 2016, had stated hat feedback can motivate, improve performance and can act as tool for continued learning. Researchers like Mishra, Boyntn and Mishra in 2014 had supported the view and stated that feedback should be educative in nature, given in timely manner, sensitive, meet needs and according to ability to the receiver. Action plan: Smart objective Development of effective listening skills specific I can engage in workshops that conduct efficient classes on effective communication. Moreover I can also admit to the university discussion which is conducted bi-weekly where the mentors help in overcoming various difficulties faced by students o that they can overcome them before beginning their careers. Moreover reading the important communication models that have been put forward by eminent researchers to overcome different barriers will also help me to understand how my listening skills could be developed. measurable The goals are measurable as the better I am able to achieve the goals, the better I will be able to perform in different tasks both in my personal as well as professional life. The increase of success in my tasks and less complain by my peers and good words of them about my listening skills will help me to understand how much I have succeeded and measure the rate of success I have achieved in correct listening skills. attainable The goals are attainable easily. Workshops, mentor discussion classes, journal papers of authors are not costly and are affordable for me also. I can easily access the university library to get the reading data. Moreover, the biweekly discussion class is conducted by university only. So no extra resources are needed. Only financial support is necessary for workshops but they are not much. So, the goals are attainable financially. Physical and mental pressure is also not high to achieve the best results. relevant These goals are relevant in the sense, that I will be able to recognize my negative aspects and learn how the barriers can be broken. The modes selected will also enhance my listening skills with guidelines that will help in developing my listening skills also. timeframe A period of eight months will be enough. Smart objective Development of effective feedback skills specific Workshop will be attended that will develop my feedback giving and receiving skills. Moreover many online journals would be searched for evidence based researches where different methods of effective feedback skills are discussed by the researchers. The mentor of the project will be approached who will provide suggestions to develop my feedback skills. measurable The way how effectively I can appreciate the feedback provided by the opposite person and how successfully, I can implement in my own practice will help me to measure how effective my strategies have worked. Moreover, the frequency by how much I overcome my complexes and go forward to help others will automatically reflect and measure how much I have been able to incorporate this skill in my communication procedures. attainable They are attainable because limited access to resources is required to achieve the goals. Moreover the goals are also not physically and mentally draining and hence can be attend properly. relevant The goals are relevant as they will help in correctly overcoming the different insecurities I face. The workshop as well as my mentor will help me identify the procedures I can apply to keep aside my complexes and emerge victorious with proper skills. The evidence based articles will help me to develop idea about how proper feedback should be f=given and hence the goals selected are relevant. timeframe A minimum of eight months will be required. Gantt chart: First month Second month Third month Fourth month Fifth month Sixth month Seventh month Eighth month Workshops for listening skill and feedback skills Application of the learning achieved form workshops Discussion with mentors and attending interactive session sin universities and then attending to evaluate the success Visit the mentor to evaluate the results Reading of evidence based journals Effective application of listening and feedback skills References: Arnold, E. C., Boggs, K. U. (2015).Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences. Bedwell, W. L., Fiore, S. M., Salas, E. (2014). Developing the future workforce: An approach for integrating interpersonal skills into the MBA classroom.Academy of Management Learning Education,13(2), 171-186. Brandler, S. and Roman, C.P., 2015.Group work: Skills and strategies for effective interventions. Routledge. Brownell, J. (2015).Listening: Attitudes, principles, and skills. Routledge. Certo, S. (2015).Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. DiSanza, J. R., Legge, N. J. (2016).Business and professional communication: Plans, processes, and performance. Pearson. DiSanza, J. R., Legge, N. J. (2016).Business and professional communication: Plans, processes, and performance. Pearson. Goetsch, D. L., Davis, S. B. (2014).Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Jackson, D. (2015). Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice.Studies in Higher Education,40(2), 350-367. Johansson, C., D. Miller, V., Hamrin, S. (2014). Conceptualizing communicative leadership: A framework for analysing and developing leaders communication competence.Corporate Communications: An International Journal,19(2), 147-165. King, G., Shepherd, T. A., Servais, M., Willoughby, C., Bolack, L., Strachan, D., ... Savage, D. (2016). Developing authentic clinical simulations for effective listening and communication in pediatric rehabilitation service delivery.Developmental neurorehabilitation,19(5), 284-294. Mishra, K., Boynton, L., Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications.International Journal of Business Communication,51(2), 183-202. Royle, J., Laing, A. (2014). The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer Model for the communication industries.International Journal of Information Management,34(2), 65-73. Sanghi, S. (2016).The handbook of competency mapping: understanding, designing and implementing competency models in organizations. SAGE Publications India. Trenholm, S. (2016).Thinking through communication. Routledge.